If you want to explore WMI, then the following code may come handy. Find-WmiClass accepts a simple keyword such as “video”, “network”, “ipaddress”. It then retrieves all WMI classes that contain the keyword either in its class name, or one of its properties or methods.

functionFind-WmiClass
{
param([Parameter(Mandatory)]$Keyword)
Write-Progress-Activity"Finding WMI Classes"-Status"Searching"# find all WMI classes...
Get-WmiObject-Class*-List|# that contain the search keyword
Where-Object {
# is there a property or method with the keyword?
$containsMember= ((@($_.Properties.Name) -like"*$Keyword*").Count-gt0) -or ((@($_.Methods.Name) -like"*$Keyword*").Count-gt0)
# is the keyword in the class name, and is it an interesting type of class?
$containsClassName=$_.Name-like"*$Keyword*"-and$_.Properties.Count-gt2-and$_.Name-notlike'Win32_Perf*'$containsMember-or$containsClassName
}
Write-Progress-Activity"Find WMI Classes"-Completed
}
$classes=Find-WmiClass$classes|# let the user select one of the found classes
Out-GridView-Title"Select WMI Class"-OutputModeSingle|ForEach-Object {
# get all instances of the selected class
Get-CimInstance-Class$_.Name|# show all properties
Select-Object-Property*|Out-GridView-Title"Instances"
}

The user can then select one of the classes found, and the code then shows the actual instances of this class.

Disclaimer: there are some rare classes with thousands of instances, such as CIM_File. When selecting a WMI class with so many instances, the script may take a long time to complete.

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